One Song
by Joseph Haney
Summary: Paige loses a bet with Toby and must face her worst fear - live karaoke!


"No way," Paige said, shaking her head. "I'm not doing it."

"You lost the bet so you kind of have to," Toby said, grinning from ear to ear. "I believe those are the rules."

"And if there's one thing Toby knows, it's the rules to gambling," Happy chimed in.

"If you didn't want to do it, you shouldn't have made the bet," Toby said. "So…you either do it or you live with the eternal shame of knowing you welched on me. And I've got a mind like a steel trap. You will never hear the end of it."

"You know he's right," Sylvester said, giving Paige a sympathetic look. "You're better off just doing this and getting it over with."

Paige looked around the group, her brain desperately trying to think of a way out of this. Unable to come up with anything, she let out a sigh of frustration. "Fine," she said. "One song. But I'm picking which one."

"Fair enough," Toby said, somehow managing to widen his grin. He turned and opened the door to the karaoke bar and they all filed inside. While Toby, Sylvester and Happy went to get a table, Paige went up to the DJ and picked up the music book, flipping through it and cursing herself for letting Toby goad her into that stupid card game. If there was one saving grace to this mess, it was the fact that Walter was doing some extra community service tonight. There was no way she was going to avoid him seeing it – Toby had spent the entire ride over bragging about how great the video would be on his new phone – but at least he wouldn't see it live. It was a small hope, but it was the only one she had.

It didn't take her long to decide on a song, but she flipped through the book a few times in an effort to delay this as long as she could. After she felt she had reached the end of her window, she told the DJ her choice and made her way over to the others and waited for her name to be called. The wait seemed to take forever, partly because of her nerves but mostly because of the series of drunk frat boys who were on the list before her. After three increasingly terrible renditions of various songs, one young man began butchering Queen's 'We Are The Champions'. Paige actually felt relieved when he was booed off the stage, but the relief was short lived. As soon as the ruckus died down the DJ picked up the microphone and spoke the words she'd been dreading the entire night.

"Next up, Paige Dineen singing Night Ranger's 'Sister Christian'."

Toby looked over at Paige. "Nice choice," he said as she stood, took a deep breath and started toward the stage. She took her place behind the microphone stand, trying her best to ignore the catcalls from the patrons and to blink the stage lights out of her eyes. After a few tense seconds, she heard the opening piano chords and turned her attention to the screen at her feet as the first lines appeared. She swallowed, mentally kicking herself one last time, then took the plunge.

' _Sister Christian oh the time has come  
And you know that you're the only one to say, okay  
Where you going, what you looking for?  
You know those boys don't wanna play no more with you  
It's true…'_

As she approached the end of the opening verse and the drums announced the beginning of the chorus, she felt herself relaxing. Encouraged by the noise that sounded like cheers from the crowd, she started getting into the song, feeling herself smiling and actually kind of enjoying herself. When the song ended, the bar exploded with the sound of applause. Paige gave a small bow before making her way off of the stage and back to the table with the others, pausing every now and then as people congratulated her on her performance.

Happy and Sylvester applauded as she approached, and she saw Toby making his way back through the crowd, cell phone in hand. "I got the whole thing!" he exclaimed. "And I don't know what you were so worried about, Paige. You were easily the best act of the night. I swear, you'd even have a shot on American Idol. If it weren't going off the air, I mean…"

"I feel sorry for whoever's up next," a voice said from behind her. Paige froze as she recognized the voice. _Please no,_ she thought, turning and finding herself face to face with Walter, who was regarding her with the awkward smile she'd seen him wearing more often lately. She ducked her head and shifted her weight awkwardly.

"I…I thought you were finishing up your community service tonight," she said, brushing some hair behind her ear and trying to keep her heart from leaping out of her chest.

Walter shook his head. "Tomorrow," he said. "That's tomorrow. Ray asked me to be his wingman tonight. That…it didn't last long. I saw Toby's note at the warehouse and came down."

Paige turned on Toby. "You left a note?"

"I figured everyone should have equal opportunity to see this live," Toby said with a shrug. "Cabe's gonna be sorry he missed out."

Paige sighed. "Okay, so…everyone got to see me sing. Can we move on now?"

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, Paige," Walter said. "You…well, you're better at this than…him." He pointed to the man on the stage at the moment, who was trying and failing to make it through 'Paradise City'.

Paige let out a small chuckle. "Thanks," she said, looking Walter in the eye for the first time. "I mean…I'm assuming that's your way of saying I have a good singing voice, so…Thanks." She held that gaze until the sound of Sylvester clearing his throat caused her to turn.

"Can we please go?" he asked. "This place is so far out of my comfort zone..."

"Yeah, big guy," Toby said. "We can go." He led Sylvester out, Happy right behind them. Once they were alone Paige looked back to Walter. "So…you really liked it?" she asked.

Walter nodded, smiling. "Very much. Why don't you sing more often?"

"I don't know," Paige said with a shrug, walking past him toward the door. "I guess…it's just my way of relieving stress. Sylvester does math, Happy builds stuff, You hack into government agencies…I sing. I really never thought much about doing it like this, in front of people…" She let out a sigh. "I guess Toby's posting that video online about now."

"I can tell him not to, if you want," Walter said. "Or I can delete it myself."

Before Paige could respond, Toby shouted from across the parking lot. "You're going viral, Paige! 1500 hits already!"

"Guess my secret's out now," Paige said with a small sigh.

"It could be worse," Walter said, smiling a little. "You could have been terrible."


End file.
